Anjan Dutta had disappeared from the world of movie productions for a long time and one could be pardoned for thinking that he had taken the commercial failure of BADA DIN too much to heart [remember the Marc Robinson, Tara Deshpande, Shabana Azmi starrer?] Thankfully, of late, he has dispelled such notions with two back to back releases – THE BONG CONNECTION, which I have not been able to catch so far and BOW BARRACKS FOREVER, which I just did, over the weekend in Mumbai.
BOW BARRACKS FOREVER provides a delightful insight into the trials, the tribulations and the triumphs of a forgotten community of cosmopolitan urban India – the Anglo-Indian community. The story has a real backdrop – the setting is that of a quaint corner of North Kolkata – the Bow Street, where a varied assortment of Anglo-Indians struggle to cope with a city that has outpaced them in changing to a different equation of life, where they are an unwanted hangover of the colonial era. Living in a set of old, dilapidated barracks which once housed the American soldiers of World War – I, the inmates seem to live with a cloud of destruction perennially hanging over them – destruction of their abodes which is under the malevolent gaze of a land-grabbing builder; destruction of their culture in a city, which has bypassed them on its path to the future; destruction of their destinies, as embodied by a young Clayton Rodgers who says that the best that he can hope for is to become a waiter in a Park Street restaurant. The gora sahibs may have gone, but their colonial cousins desperately hang on to the remains of the day. So much so, their mongrel existence has left them schizophrenic, neither completely Indian nor completely phirang. In Potter terms, they are the original half-blood prince and princesses who build their local bands on terrace tops, while dreaming of making it Beatles' land.
Anjan Dutta has woven beautifully rendered tales of human relationships, the highs and lows around each character – Peter, the Cheater, a former soldier and the proud descendant of an American World War officer, but who now specializes in con jobs as a vocation, under the guise of an antique dealer; Mrs. Emily Lobo, forever dreaming of severing her links with the crumbling world around her by shifting to London to her eldest son, making infinite calls to her son, only to be repeatedly met with voice messages and a stony, obdurate silence from the other end; Tom, an Armenian Christian wife-beater who has taken to smuggling and his wife, Anne, trapped in a dysfunctional, abusive relationship; Mrs. Rosa D’ Costa, desperate to latch on to anybody who is willing to take her away from Bow Barracks and thus, away from her husband, who is too much in love with his ancestral dwelling.
Remarkably, each one of them show a tremendous resilience to rise above their destinies – Peter may well be a fraudster, but he is a gentleman to the core and that too with a huge, kind heart and the old soldier’s blood still boils over in the face of injustice and Mrs. Lobo realizes that her younger son, may well not succeed as much as her elder son, but is a much finer human being, while Mrs. Rosa finally realizes the worth of true love and a nice human being and Anne is rid of the trauma of her abusive husband. And of course, the jolly and rambunctious community with all its idiosyncrasies, still has its guitars and trumpets and the wannabe John Lennons and George Harrisons to tide over the worst and rekindle the love for one’s own sweet home in the midst of each one’s hearts.
On the negative side, one may say that Anjan Dutta has perhaps chosen to go with a stereotyped image of the Anglos in Kolkata and the editing of the movie could have been better to make it a little tauter. Certain actors like Rupa Ganguly, George Baker and even the wonderfully talented Sabyasachi Chakraborty have been wasted. The sex scenes are quite uncalled for and most awfully picturised, leading to sheer misery as a cinema-goer. Interestingly the term Anglo-Indians is a loose umbrella term for all kinds of Eurasian Christian minorities in Kolkata and the uninitiated might find it strange that distinctly Portuguese sounding surnames like Lobo or D’ Costa or the Armenian Christian Tom are all passed off as Anglo-Indians.
But, watch the movie for the stupendous performances from Victor Banerjee as Peter, the Cheater [you have to pardon a few instances of him going overboard, in Fagin like mannerisms from Oliver Twist] and Lillette Dubey as Mrs. Lobo, apart from the interesting sepia tinged look at this fast dwindling heritage community – of course, a certain acquaintance with Kolkata and its Anglo-Indian community would help make it that much more meaningful.
BOW BARRACKS FOREVER provides a delightful insight into the trials, the tribulations and the triumphs of a forgotten community of cosmopolitan urban India – the Anglo-Indian community. The story has a real backdrop – the setting is that of a quaint corner of North Kolkata – the Bow Street, where a varied assortment of Anglo-Indians struggle to cope with a city that has outpaced them in changing to a different equation of life, where they are an unwanted hangover of the colonial era. Living in a set of old, dilapidated barracks which once housed the American soldiers of World War – I, the inmates seem to live with a cloud of destruction perennially hanging over them – destruction of their abodes which is under the malevolent gaze of a land-grabbing builder; destruction of their culture in a city, which has bypassed them on its path to the future; destruction of their destinies, as embodied by a young Clayton Rodgers who says that the best that he can hope for is to become a waiter in a Park Street restaurant. The gora sahibs may have gone, but their colonial cousins desperately hang on to the remains of the day. So much so, their mongrel existence has left them schizophrenic, neither completely Indian nor completely phirang. In Potter terms, they are the original half-blood prince and princesses who build their local bands on terrace tops, while dreaming of making it Beatles' land.
Anjan Dutta has woven beautifully rendered tales of human relationships, the highs and lows around each character – Peter, the Cheater, a former soldier and the proud descendant of an American World War officer, but who now specializes in con jobs as a vocation, under the guise of an antique dealer; Mrs. Emily Lobo, forever dreaming of severing her links with the crumbling world around her by shifting to London to her eldest son, making infinite calls to her son, only to be repeatedly met with voice messages and a stony, obdurate silence from the other end; Tom, an Armenian Christian wife-beater who has taken to smuggling and his wife, Anne, trapped in a dysfunctional, abusive relationship; Mrs. Rosa D’ Costa, desperate to latch on to anybody who is willing to take her away from Bow Barracks and thus, away from her husband, who is too much in love with his ancestral dwelling.
Remarkably, each one of them show a tremendous resilience to rise above their destinies – Peter may well be a fraudster, but he is a gentleman to the core and that too with a huge, kind heart and the old soldier’s blood still boils over in the face of injustice and Mrs. Lobo realizes that her younger son, may well not succeed as much as her elder son, but is a much finer human being, while Mrs. Rosa finally realizes the worth of true love and a nice human being and Anne is rid of the trauma of her abusive husband. And of course, the jolly and rambunctious community with all its idiosyncrasies, still has its guitars and trumpets and the wannabe John Lennons and George Harrisons to tide over the worst and rekindle the love for one’s own sweet home in the midst of each one’s hearts.
On the negative side, one may say that Anjan Dutta has perhaps chosen to go with a stereotyped image of the Anglos in Kolkata and the editing of the movie could have been better to make it a little tauter. Certain actors like Rupa Ganguly, George Baker and even the wonderfully talented Sabyasachi Chakraborty have been wasted. The sex scenes are quite uncalled for and most awfully picturised, leading to sheer misery as a cinema-goer. Interestingly the term Anglo-Indians is a loose umbrella term for all kinds of Eurasian Christian minorities in Kolkata and the uninitiated might find it strange that distinctly Portuguese sounding surnames like Lobo or D’ Costa or the Armenian Christian Tom are all passed off as Anglo-Indians.
But, watch the movie for the stupendous performances from Victor Banerjee as Peter, the Cheater [you have to pardon a few instances of him going overboard, in Fagin like mannerisms from Oliver Twist] and Lillette Dubey as Mrs. Lobo, apart from the interesting sepia tinged look at this fast dwindling heritage community – of course, a certain acquaintance with Kolkata and its Anglo-Indian community would help make it that much more meaningful.
